What is true of our feelings, in this respect, applies to our ideas:  All thoughts that enter the mind tend to be accepted as truth unless a stronger and contradictory thought arises.

The speaker skilled in moving men to action manages to dominate the minds of his audience with his thoughts by subtly prohibiting the entertaining of ideas hostile to his own.  Most of us are captured by the latest strong attack, and if we can be induced to act while under the stress of that last insistent thought, we lose sight of counter influences.  The fact is that almost all our decisions—­if they involve thought at all—­are of this sort:  At the moment of decision the course of action then under contemplation usurps the attention, and conflicting ideas are dropped out of consideration.

The head of a large publishing house remarked only recently that ninety per cent of the people who bought books by subscription never read them.  They buy because the salesman presents his wares so skillfully that every consideration but the attractiveness of the book drops out of the mind, and that thought prompts action. Every idea that enters the mind will result in action unless a contradictory thought arises to prohibit it.  Think of singing the musical scale and it will result in your singing it unless the counter-thought of its futility or absurdity inhibits your action.  If you bandage and “doctor” a horse’s foot, he will go lame.  You cannot think of swallowing, without the muscles used in that process being affected.  You cannot think of saying “hello,” without a slight movement of the muscles of speech.  To warn children that they should not put beans up their noses is the surest method of getting them to do it.  Every thought called up in the mind of your audience will work either for or against you.  Thoughts are not dead matter; they radiate dynamic energy—­the thoughts all tend to pass into action.  “Thought is another name for fate.”  Dominate your hearers’ thoughts, allay all contradictory ideas, and you will sway them as you wish.

Volitions as well as feelings and thoughts tend to follow the line of least resistance.  That is what makes habit.  Suggest to a man that it is impossible to change his mind and in most cases it becomes more difficult to do so—­the exception is the man who naturally jumps to the contrary.  Counter suggestion is the only way to reach him.  Suggest subtly and persistently that the opinions of those in the audience who are opposed to your views are changing, and it requires an effort of the will—­in fact, a summoning of the forces of feeling, thought and will—­to stem the tide of change that has subconsciously set in.